


Outside the Window

by Elkian (SuperImposed)



Category: OFF (Game)
Genre: Child Death, Gen, Hospital, Sickfic, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-13
Updated: 2014-04-13
Packaged: 2018-01-19 04:41:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1455769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperImposed/pseuds/Elkian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hugo hates the hospital.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Outside the Window

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: http://elkian.tumblr.com/post/49486213455/outside-the-window

Day 3

Hugo hates this room.

It smells bad, something chemical and nauseating. It’s boring, too - the other bed is empty, so he only has company when the nurses come to give him medicine or mother manages to visit.

Father doesn’t come.

\---------

Day 10

Father finally visits.

He’s dressed in the boring, no-hugs business outfit. Hugo wishes he’d put on his mess clothes so they could play catch outside. But at least father brings a new comic book.

Mother arrives half an hour later. Father is already gone.

\----------

Day 15

Hugo has read the comic many times. Mother has tearfully apologized for her busy work schedule, but assures him that father will visit every day.

Father has not.

Hugo watches people outside the window. Dozens and dozens of boring businessmen and office workers, all short hair and neat clothes and blank faces. They all look alike to Hugo. Some lean against walls and exhale clouds of mysterious gray smoke, which is a little less boring.

Hugo falls asleep against the sill, dreaming of people making smoke for breath.

\------------

Day 23

Mother finally visits again. When she hears that father has not been by, her lips go tight and wobbly and she turns away from the bed for a few minutes.

Hugo feels better with her there. He’s been coughing a lot less, and today he manages a few bites of mysterious hospital meat before mother finally takes pity on him and lets him get started on desert.

Mother promises to come by more often, and leaves a pad of paper and a brand new box of crayons. Hugo uses up three pages before the nurses make him sleep. He closes his eyes while clutching the best of them, a queen dressed like his mother.

\--------------

Day 35

Hugo really hates the clock on the wall.

At some point the minute hand fell off and disappeared, leaving the stubby hour hand to tick, tick around the face, except it’s broken too. It makes the sound and twitches like a dying animal, but never moves. Hugo hates it.

Father didn’t visit.

\---------------

Day 38

The other bed is occupied. The other kid is still recovering from surgery, and is silent save a few gasps and what almost sounds like a chuckle.

Hugo doesn’t sleep well, even after the shot from the nurse.

Father didn’t visit.

\-------------------

Day 46

The other kid is awake now. He talks weirdly, half his jaw swathed with bandages and stuffed with cotton. He’s in surprisingly good spirits, mostly complaining about his head being shaved.

Later he trades Hugo a playing card for a piece of paper, and a theme park ticket (used) for a crayon. The mask he makes looks like an ugly frog, and Hugo laughs for the first time in days.

Father didn’t visit.

\-------------------

Day 48

Zacharie is out for more surgery, and Hugo goes back to people-watching in his boredom.

There’s a tall man with a creepy grin sitting on a bench. The businessmen shy away from him. He looks scary, but when the man notices his observer and waves, Hugo waves back.

Hugo feels better today.

Father didn’t visit.

\-----------------

Day 52

Mother didn’t come in time to meet Zacharie before yet another surgery, but she listens while Hugo gaily chatters about the other boy. She smiles almost naturally, even when she hears father hasn’t come yet. There are dark circles under her eyes, but she chuckles and hugs Hugo tight when he finishes a whole plate of the hospital food.

Hugo feels much better.

Father didn’t come by.

\----------------

Day 54

Father visited.

Hugo tries to give him the silent treatment, angry. But he crumbles when the man lays a new baseball mitt on the bed, and coaxes Hugo to the hospital gardens. They play for an hour, and stays for even longer. 

Mother sees him when she visits, and frowns. Hugo knows they won’t fight until she thinks he can’t hear them. Father submits easily enough, leaving Hugo with a pat on the head and a handful of candy.

\-----------------

Day 57

Zacharie can’t eat the hard candy, and the girl who visits him sometimes gets sick on sweets, so Hugo has the treats all to himself.

He spends most of the day telling Zacharie about how cool father is, even if he dresses up like a businessman - it’s a disguise, of course, so he can sneak up on ghosts and kill them.

Zacharie asks how can someone kill a ghost again, and Hugo tosses a pillow at him.

He saves three whole candies for tomorrow. He wishes he saved more and ate less, because his stomach is really hurting now.

\--------------

Day 61

Father visited once, but ducked out before mother could see him. Hugo watches the people again.

The tall man is arguing with a fat man, who’s holding a cake. Hugo giggles when a bird lands on the fat man’s head, who doesn’t seem to notice. The tall man doubles over, trying to hide laughter.

Hugo feels worse today.

\------------

Day 67

The tall man and the fat man aren’t outside today, but there are a couple of cats playing. They look like brothers. One of them tries to eat the fat man’s bird, but it smacks him with a wing and flies away.

Zacharie laughs when Hugo tells him. Hugo would laugh too, but it makes his chest hurt.

Hugo feels worse today.

\------------

Day 73

Hugo spends the whole day laying face-down, halfway off the bed and not caring. His pale face is reflected in the shiny metal floor. 

Mother frowns over him and asks the doctor for another examination. Hugo sits in her lap as the diagnosis is given. By that night he’s scheduled for surgery.

Father didn’t visit.

\-----------

Day 75

Hugo has a tube down his throat, to breathe with. He wants to ask about smoke, but he can’t muster the words. Zacharie looks concerned, and lends Hugo his special teddy bear.

Hugo feels a lot worse today.

Father didn’t visit.

\-----------

Day 78

Hugo can barely move. He can’t eat anything, or even drink - the water tastes like plastic, thick and impossible to swallow. Everything smells bad, even his new mitt, and colors hurt his eyes.

Zacharie draws a picture of one of the brother cats for him, and Hugo smiles.

Father didn’t visit.

\-------------

Day 83

Father visited.

He and mother talked to the doctor in the hall. Hugo has more tubes down his throat, and can barely move at all. The room seems darker than before.

Zacharie glues the cat drawing to his face and dances around, but Hugo doesn’t smile again.

\-----------

Day 85

Father and mother argued in loud voices. Hugo wants to tell them to stop fighting, to be happy, but he can’t even open his eyes. The teddy bear is still tucked in his arms. Zacharie was discharged the day before, but he told Hugo to keep it - it would protect him from ghosts and monsters.

\-------------

Day 90

Mother left after another argument, this time ended with shaking words and tears. Father sits by Hugo’s bed. In a calm, sad voice, father explains that Hugo is very sick, and that the doctors can’t keep him alive anymore. 

Hugo is afraid.

Hugo has thought he might die, before now, in this cold and empty room. He’s not afraid of being sick.

But he is afraid now. 

He is afraid because he knows, if he opened his eyes, father would be smiling, tears or no.

Father puts his hand on Hugo’s head one last time, and he smells of candy.

 


End file.
